BOYHOOD

When Boyhood won its awards earlier this year, I was all over it. The concept which drives this film is fascinating and ground breaking, with a story and actual filming spanning 12 years, following the life of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) and family as they all grow together and apart etc… It looks seamless and if you did not know, you would never know and even whilst watching it, you can easily forget and do not think to ask questions as to how this boy is growing older before our very eyes.

Like I have said, the concept is brilliant and it was justly rewarded but to me, personally, that was as far as it went. The story was unoriginal and is simply a domestic drama with realistic, relatable yet unlikable characters. It was restrained though, often choosing not to fall into the trap of hammering home its points to hard, with arguments with step-fathers playing out realistically, rather than devolving into violence, for example.

Many will see this as a masterpiece and maybe it is within the genre but I personally have a low tolerance for this kind of drama and even though it was well directed, it did not offer anything original beside the central conceit. So many kitchen sink dramas have come before and broken new ground but this seems to simply retread it in order to for the story to be filmed in this novel, may I even so as far to say “gimmicky” way.

Innovative film-making to tell a mediocre story. “A moving 12 year epic”, well it may just be me but I was not as moved as I should have been. Sorry.